Sports

Brush boys take down Sterling 53-40

Tigers finish the regular season 3rd in the 3A/2A Patriot League

By David Wilson

Journal-Advocate sports writer

Posted:
02/19/2014 11:31:15 AM MST

At times, the Sterling boys' basketball team played right with the 3A/2A Patriot League second-place team, Brush, during Tuesday night's season finale. But, unforced errors and a spotty defensive effort was too much to overcome for the Tigers as they fell 53-40 to the No. 6 ranked Beetdiggers.

"We hit a few stretches where we were turning the ball over and they were unforced turnovers," Sterling head coach Mike Holloway said. "That cost us a little bit, but we just weren't good enough defensively (Tuesday). "We gave up way too many shots right at the rim. We hung around with the No. 6 ranked team on their home floor, but in order to beat a team like that, you can't have those defensive break downs and we had way too many of those."

Sterling trailed just 18-14 after the first quarter, thanks to eight first-quarter points from Davis Lebsock, and was down just 31-25 at the half.

In the third quarter, though, Brush outscored the Tigers 15-9 and were able to maintain an 8-12 point lead throughout most of the fourth quarter as Sterling was never able to mount a rally to truly threaten.

Davis Lebsock was the lone Tiger in double-figures on Tuesday as he scored 16 points, while Chas Lebsock added nine points and Ethan Rose tallied five points to pace the offense.

After going 10-0 and winning the Patriot League regular season championship last season, the Tigers end this year in third place heading into the district tournament.

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Thankfully for the Tigers, Fort Lupton, which drops down from the 4A/3A Colorado 7 to the Patriot League for the district tournament, also lost on Tuesday as it was dismantled 81-47 by Elizabeth.

Fort Lupton entered Tuesday trailing Sterling in the Maxpreps Colorado rankings and could have possibly dropped Sterling to the No. 4 seed in the Patriot League district tournament, but the loss for Fort Lupton helped keep the Tigers locked in the No. 3 seed.

Sterling will receive a first-round bye and then will play at home at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday against the No. 6 seed, Frontier Academy, in the second round of the tournament.

If Sterling wins on Tuesday, it will punch its ticket to the state tournament because it will be guaranteed no worse than a fourth-place finish and the top-five teams from the Patriot League district tournament make it on to state.

"That first game is going to be huge. We talked about that after the game (Tuesday) that if we win that first game, we're in," Holloway said. "We have four practice days here and we're going to work hard, we're going to get after each other, and hopefully we'll come out next Tuesday and play the best game we have all year."

RE-1 Valley School District has announced its policy for determining eligibility of children who may receive free and reduced price meals served under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program.
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